Published: Wednesday, November 13, 2013 at 1:26 p.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, November 13, 2013 at 1:26 p.m.

With two craft beer festivals in town this year, isn't it about time we had a microbrewery to call our own?

Yeah, why don't we?

Patience. One is coming. In fact, it's almost here. And its possibilities are Infinite.

Actually, that's its name: the Infinite Microbrewery, soon to open its doors at 304 S. Magnolia Ave., right across the street from Rick's Cleaners.

"It'll be a two-phase opening," said Tom McDonald, one of the owners in the new venture; yes, the same Tom McDonald who is one of the owners of Pi on Broadway, though he said the two are only tacitly related. "I'm sure if some of the Pi staff want some extra hours they'll be welcome," he added.

Phase one of Infinite, he said, will be a "tap room," a sort of socializing hall with 40 craft brews on tap. This also will include a specialty "bottle shop" selling "beers not found anywhere around here," McDonald added.

He and his partners are targeting mid-December — "by Christmas" — for phase one to open.

Then a handful of months later, perhaps in spring, phase two — the actual microbrewery — is expected to crank up. Much depends on getting the equipment, permitting and so forth.

"This will be a good thing for downtown," McDonald said. "We feel craft beer is an emerging market."

Actually, there have been craft beers available in this area going back years: I'm told Horse & Hounds, Harry's and O'Malley's have featured them, and more recently the Tilted Kilt and Tony's Sports Bar & Grill.

For a time, Hops on College Road where Cody's Roadhouse is today, brewed its own; well, with a name like Hops, what do you expect?

But somehow the edgy Pi has become identified with craft beer in the area, maybe because craft beer has been a staple there since it opened downtown several years back and the eatery is in the forefront of encouraging this emerging market.

"We realized a lot of people are really enjoying craft beers," McDonald said. At Pi's first event, a private party, he recalled there were two kegs available: one of Miller Lite and the other a craft beer. "At the end of the night, the craft beer was gone," he said.

And that eventually led to the first Craftoberfest three Octobers ago, a Saturday afternoon block party on Broadway Street in front of Pi. The event drew nearly 1,000 partiers to its latest edition last month.

And this year, JVC Communications, which owns local radio stations Q92-FM and My Country 102.3-FM, presented its first craft beer festival at Hilton Ocala in September.

At the Swamp Head Microbrewery in Gainesville, founder Luke Kemper discovered the lure of craft beer during trips to Colorado, he said, and decided Gainesville was ripe for a different taste. After buying the brewing equipment from the old Spanish Springs Brewery in The Villages in 2008, Swamp Head tapped its first batch in early 2009.

It has since become something of a regional favorite.

"It's a movement back to local, smaller beers," Kemper said of craft beers.

Moreover, Ocala has a small but thriving core of home craft brewers — the Brick City Brewers. The club meets at 4:30 p.m. on the second Sunday of every month, at Pi of course.

Making your own beer is something "you can do in four to five hours or something that takes you weeks," home brewer Micheal Coons said in an interview prior to Craftoberfest.

"We want people to come out and enjoy," he added. "We're trying to help everyone make better beer."

And while there's that sense of self-accomplishment — "I made this!" — Coons talked about, it seems that by this time next year that sense could become secondary, at least for me.

The beer at our new microbrewery, you see, is likely to be Infinitely better than anything I could ever make.

<p>With two craft beer festivals in town this year, isn't it about time we had a microbrewery to call our own?</p><p>Yeah, why don't we?</p><p>Patience. One is coming. In fact, it's almost here. And its possibilities are Infinite.</p><p>Actually, that's its name: the Infinite Microbrewery, soon to open its doors at 304 S. Magnolia Ave., right across the street from Rick's Cleaners.</p><p>"It'll be a two-phase opening," said Tom McDonald, one of the owners in the new venture; yes, the same Tom McDonald who is one of the owners of Pi on Broadway, though he said the two are only tacitly related. "I'm sure if some of the Pi staff want some extra hours they'll be welcome," he added.</p><p>Phase one of Infinite, he said, will be a "tap room," a sort of socializing hall with 40 craft brews on tap. This also will include a specialty "bottle shop" selling "beers not found anywhere around here," McDonald added.</p><p>He and his partners are targeting mid-December — "by Christmas" — for phase one to open.</p><p>Then a handful of months later, perhaps in spring, phase two — the actual microbrewery — is expected to crank up. Much depends on getting the equipment, permitting and so forth.</p><p>"This will be a good thing for downtown," McDonald said. "We feel craft beer is an emerging market."</p><p>Actually, there have been craft beers available in this area going back years: I'm told Horse & Hounds, Harry's and O'Malley's have featured them, and more recently the Tilted Kilt and Tony's Sports Bar & Grill.</p><p>For a time, Hops on College Road where Cody's Roadhouse is today, brewed its own; well, with a name like Hops, what do you expect?</p><p>But somehow the edgy Pi has become identified with craft beer in the area, maybe because craft beer has been a staple there since it opened downtown several years back and the eatery is in the forefront of encouraging this emerging market.</p><p>"We realized a lot of people are really enjoying craft beers," McDonald said. At Pi's first event, a private party, he recalled there were two kegs available: one of Miller Lite and the other a craft beer. "At the end of the night, the craft beer was gone," he said.</p><p>And that eventually led to the first Craftoberfest three Octobers ago, a Saturday afternoon block party on Broadway Street in front of Pi. The event drew nearly 1,000 partiers to its latest edition last month.</p><p>And this year, JVC Communications, which owns local radio stations Q92-FM and My Country 102.3-FM, presented its first craft beer festival at Hilton Ocala in September.</p><p>At the Swamp Head Microbrewery in Gainesville, founder Luke Kemper discovered the lure of craft beer during trips to Colorado, he said, and decided Gainesville was ripe for a different taste. After buying the brewing equipment from the old Spanish Springs Brewery in The Villages in 2008, Swamp Head tapped its first batch in early 2009.</p><p>It has since become something of a regional favorite.</p><p>"It's a movement back to local, smaller beers," Kemper said of craft beers.</p><p>Moreover, Ocala has a small but thriving core of home craft brewers — the Brick City Brewers. The club meets at 4:30 p.m. on the second Sunday of every month, at Pi of course.</p><p>Making your own beer is something "you can do in four to five hours or something that takes you weeks," home brewer Micheal Coons said in an interview prior to Craftoberfest. </p><p>"We want people to come out and enjoy," he added. "We're trying to help everyone make better beer."</p><p>And while there's that sense of self-accomplishment — "I made this!" — Coons talked about, it seems that by this time next year that sense could become secondary, at least for me.</p><p>The beer at our new microbrewery, you see, is likely to be Infinitely better than anything I could ever make.</p><p><i>Rick Allen can be reached at rick.allen@starbanner.com or 867-4154.</i></p>